THE feud inside the New York Times over a provocative photo of a semi-nude, underage fashion model intensified this week after Times Magazine Editor Gerald Marzorati fired off a missive defending the photo.
The picture in question appeared in the Holiday issue of the glitzy fashion insert T, which came out Dec. 2, and features a soft-focus side-shot glimpse of 17-year-old model Ali Michael, and her exposed left breast.
In criticizing the use of the photo in an 1,100-word column published on Dec. 16, Public Editor Clark Hoyt did more than ask whether it was appropriate to run the photo in the first place. He also blasted what he described as the loose editorial values of T, saying the insert blurs the lines between editorial and advertising in ways that would not be tolerated at other parts of the paper.
Hoyt’s condemnation of T came after the paper received several complaints from readers.
Not too surprisingly, Hoyt’s comments have triggered an infuriated reaction from one of the key editors overseeing the highly lucrative magazine insert.
Marzorati fired back in a memo to staffers earlier this week aimed at defending T and its editor, Jim Schachter.
“I will leave aside the purported central question of whether the photograph was appropriate to run or not, though as I said on Friday to Jim Schachter – who was terrific in calm, thoughtful defense of publishing the pictures – the standards wardens here would have been the very people 100 years ago to have been made apoplectic by a Renoir nude,” he wrote.
Marzorati continued, “I say purported because it seems clear from the public editor’s way of getting into his column that he is offended not simply by the photo (about which people can disagree) but rather by T in general – that the magazine’s elegant ad mixture of beauty, sensuality, luxury and God forbid, profitability, offends a moral code at the very heart of journalism and, especially, journalism as practiced at the New York Times.
“This kind of thinking would strike me as hilarious if it were not so sad, and to you, I fear hurtful,” he wrote.
Marzorati said in the memo that he believed the Times was in the business of many things.
“One of those things is achieving and maintaining editorial excellence in any subject it chooses to entertain. Another is expanding its audience reach without sacrificing that excellence. In each of these things, among others, T is a stellar example of what the Times can do and must continue to do if it hopes to thrive.”
Craig Whitney, the assistant managing editor in charge of maintaining the Times’ standards, agreed with Hoyt on the issue of the photo, calling it “tawdry.” He also said that if it had been brought to his attention ahead of time, he would have urged Executive Editor Bill Keller to delete it.
All of this infighting puts Keller in the center of a storm between two warring factions at the paper, but he’s not backing down.
“I think they are within bounds for an edgy fashion magazine published by the New York Times,” said Keller in comments that were included in Hoyt’s column, which ran under the headline, “A semi-nude minor? In the Times?”
Hoyt described the photo by legendary fashion photographer Paolo Roversi as being of “a 17-year-old model who looks younger, posing semi-nude.”
He was particularly alarmed by one shot that showed her ‘wearing’ a $3,890 blue taffeta coat by designer John Galliano.
“I say ‘wearing’ because the coat is bunched around her waist so that you can’t really tell what it is. She has her back to the camera and nothing else on,” he fumed. “In one image, she is turned slightly, showing the outline of a bare breast, out of focus.”
He doesn’t stop there. In calling into question the photo, Hoyt seemed also to question the very reason that T exists.
To be sure, Hoyt acknowledged that T’s 2007 Holiday issue was responsible for $4 million to $5 million in advertising revenue, and that the insert, which is published 15 times a year, was one of the key reasons a prominent Wall Street media analyst upgraded the New York Times Co.’s stock rating to a “buy.”
However, Hoyt said the photo spread “upset several readers and raised the question of just how far T can go before it violates good taste and becomes something that is not a credit to the New York Times, even as it rings the cash register.”
T, he claims, “blurs the line between editorial and advertising in a way that most of the Times does not.
A Times spokeswoman had no further comment on the internal feud by presstime.
Party time
Ho. Ho. Ho. Ann Moore, CEO of Time Inc. since 2002, has apparently stopped playing the Grinch and this year had no major layoffs and actually held a corporate-wide holiday party.
Though the merrymakers were not allowed out of the Time & Life Building, an open house was held in the company dining area on the third floor. It was the first official Time Inc. Christmas party held since 2002, so it could be considered a good omen for employees.
Indeed, one source even spotted someone wearing a Santa hat, and there was a gingerbread house decorating area plus Time Inc. carolers (no doubt hired singers as we doubt there is a Time Inc. glee club).
Still, a little free flowing wine and beer is certainly a lot nicer than seeing a few hundred people laid off, as had been the case in recent years.
Earnings were actually up in the second and third quarters, and who knows what festivities will erupt if the fourth quarter looks good, too.
Said an insider, reporting live from the bash that was held from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. yesterday, “There is eggnog with and without alcohol. There is wine. There is mulled cider. There is beer. And I think some other fancy colored very sweet looking booze drink. There are different food-themed rooms, Christmas cookies, cobbler, warm food, other desserts, chocolate, fruit.”
It sounds like it wasn’t a free lunch, but it was a nice dessert.
Putin it on
Meanwhile, Time Managing Editor Rick Stengel, after picking Vladimir Putin as the Man of the Year, had a “pour” on Wednesday night in the Time conference room.
He then brought about 35 staffers over to the Russian Samovar on West 52nd Street and Broadway to continue the celebration
“I had my shot of first horseradish vodka,” said Stengel.
Stengel personally flew to Russia to get the 31/2-hour interview for the cover profile, and with Putin deciding to stay put as the Prime Minister when his term as president expires, it seemed a decent choice, albeit one that is unlikely to do much to boost newsstand sales here on the home front.
Time had tried to gin up interest in its pick with a media lunch in which personalities like Whoopi Goldberg to “NBC Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams pontificated on who they think should get the nod. The betting at this year’s luncheon seemed to focus on someone tied to climate change or the environment, so the choice of Putin came out of left field.
“I think it’s nice when the person of the year is unexpected,” said Stengel. “I also see part of our job is picking someone and explaining it to the world.” keith.kelly@nypost.com